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Video: FBI hunts for suspects in MLK parade bomb scare

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>>>the city of spokane, washington, the fbi is asking for the public's help to figure out who planted a
pipe bomb
in a backpack along the route of the city's annual parade honors the reverend dr.
martin luther king jr
. our justice correspondent,
pete williams
, has been following this all day in our washington newsroom. pete, good evening.

>>brian, investigators say it was a powerful bomb, one clearly designed to kill, but luckily it was spotted and safely disarmed. but now the hunt is on for whoever put it there. it was found monday morning along the planned route of spokane's unity parade on
martin luther king day
. it was a
pipe bomb
designed to be dead natd with a radio operated remote control. it also included material to act as shrapnel to magnify its potentially lethal effect. it was con nand a
swiss army
brand backpack wrapped in two t-shirts. because the device itself was disarmed, that's giving investigators valuable evidence to work with and they're hoping the pictures of those t-shirts and the backpack itself may jog somebody's memory and produce more tips. the fbi is also offering a $20,000 reward for information about this attempted bombing. it's one that federal agents say could have turned deadly without the alert response of some city workers who saw something and said something, brian.

>>all right,
pete williams
on what could have been a major news story out in

SPOKANE, Wash. — A backpack found along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. march in Spokane contained a bomb "capable of inflicting multiple casualties," the FBI said Tuesday, describing the case as "domestic terrorism."

The FBI said the Swiss Army-brand backpack was found about 9:25 a.m. PST on Monday on a bench at the northeast corner of North Washington Street and West Main Avenue in downtown Spokane.

Philip Seymour Hoffman withdrew a total of $1,200 from an ATM at a supermarket near his New York City apartment the night before he was found lifeless in his bathroom with a syringe still in his left arm, sources told NBC News.

In an interview on msnbc cable's "The Rachel Maddow Show," Spokesman-Review reporter Thomas Clouse said confidential sources told him that the device was equipped with a remote control detonator and contained shrapnel.

A bomb disposal unit was called in and neutralized the device with a robot. The FBI said in a statement on Tuesday that "the backpack contained a potentially deadly destructive device, likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties."

The FBI has refused to discuss how the bomb was constructed.

"Suffice it to say it was of grave concern," Frank Harrill, special agent in the charge of the Spokane FBI office, told NBC News.

"You could describe it as an improvised destructive device ... or improvised explosive device."

The FBI has not established an official motive, but Harrill told NBC News "the timing and placement of the backpack (along the march route) is inescapable."

Courtesy FBI

The FBI is seeking information connected to the identity of the person or persons seen with this Swiss Army-brand backpack.

"At that point, it falls directly in the realm and sphere of domestic terrorism," Harrill told the Associated Press. "Clearly, there was some political or social agenda here."

No threats or warnings were issued before the march.

Workers initially reported the suspicious package to Spokane police. The march was slightly re-routed and delayed.

Television video on "The Rachel Maddow Show" showed the backpack sitting upright on a metal bench backed by a waist-high brick wall. In the interview with Maddow, Spokesman-Review reporter Clouse said sources told him the device was placed to direct the blast outward toward the marchers.

"The three contract workers in the area who were there are unsung heroes," the FBI spokesman said.

"We asked the FBI if we should be concerned, and he said it was some sort of device that was a real explosive device and something to be concerned about," Melissa Opel, who works at Auntie's Bookstore near the scene, told NBC station KHQ of Spokane.

The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people responsible for placing the device found Monday.

The FBI said it was seeking photographs or video taken in the area from approximately 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. People with information were asked to contact the FBI: 206-622-0460 or email seattle.fbi@ic.fbi.gov.

Another explosive device was found March 23 beside the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse in downtown Spokane. No arrests have been made in that investigation, Harrill said, and agents didn't know if the two incidents were related.

The Spokane region and adjacent northern Idaho have had numerous incidents of anti-government and white supremacist activity during the past three decades.

The most visible was by Aryan Nations, whose leader Richard Butler gathered racists and anti-Semites at his compound for two decades. Butler was bankrupted and lost the compound in a civil lawsuit in 2000 and died in 2004.

In December, a man in Hayden, Idaho, built a snowman on his front lawn shaped like a member of the Ku Klux Klan holding a noose. The man knocked the pointy-headed snowman down after getting a visit from sheriff's deputies.